~ Hope Restored & Remaining Optimistic ~

We seen a good friend of Life Row get his freedom back after 30 long years for being wrongfully convicted. Now, if you ever felt like giving up or lost hope, my brother Anthony Hinton is a prime example for guys on Life Row who have been fighting this same fight for years. Let your hope be restored back, when we seen him walk thru those doors into the arms of his family!!!

You could feel the excitement, joy and hope of one day taking that same walk as our brother did …

Over the years, I have learned to remain optimistic, no matter how tough the road may seem or get keeping GOD first, and letting him take control of the wheel. Once you do that, the better your time will be, because if GOD is for us, no man decision can be against us!

As we continue to fight this battle we are in, always remember and keep in mind that, nothing is forever, but GOD …

Keep Hope Alive!

Eagle Eye

Position yourself to succeed in whatever you are striving for. See, the key is this – if you are in the right position, and things don’t go according to plan, by you positioning yourself, you will be able to recover, or rebound.

But, if you don’t position yourself, you will either miss out, lose, or get overlooked. So, remember it’s all about how you position yourself for the big score.

Eagle Eye

Texas Death Penalty Is Slowly Dying Out

With no executions scheduled by the state Department of Criminal Justice for November or December àmarks only the 10^th execution this year – the fewest in almost 2 decades

2014 wasn’t anomalous either, and executions in Texas, the most prolific death penalty state in the country, spiked after congress restricted federal appeals in death penalty cases, with the Antiterrorism and Effective Death Penalty Act in 1996.

Since then, however, the death penalty has been in overall decline both in Texas and nationwide.

Thirty people have been executed so far this year in the entire United States, whereas Texas alone executed 40 people at its peak in 2000.

What’s driving the decline? Since executions peaked nationally in the late 1990’s, multiple Supreme Court rulings have limited the death penalty’s scope and application.

The justices barred execution of the mentally disabled in Atkins v. Virginia in 2002, for example, and eliminated the death penalty for individual crimes other than first-degree murder in their 2008 decision in Kennedy v. Louisiana. (In the latter case, the court expressly left the death penalty intact for so-called crimes against the state – treason, espionage, terrorism, and drug kingpin activity.

(to be continued …)
Eagle Eye

Why Do I Believe That Lethal Injection Is Flawed?? 

Really? Really?? First of all take the word “lethal” – Webster’s dictionary defines it as le-thal [lē’thal] ads [[< L letum. Death]] causing death; fatal. Fatal? Now, ask yourself what else is fatal? Hanging? Electrocution? Gas? Firing squad? Whatever word or label you want to use, it’s still the same.

It’s not the method, but the system of punishment! It’s the death penalty that’s flawed.

Our legal system makes distinctions between an intended crime, and an accidental crime or a hate crime. Crime not inspired by hate and state sanctioned violence and what are those differences? None!! All of it is fatal …

I once heard an A.D.A. – say, “you assign forgiveness to the pulpit on Sunday mornings, weak people forgave, strong people evened the score”, with attitudes like that, how can the system not be flawed?

Not the fatal word lethal – but the death penalty as a whole!! We fool ourselves with distractions, lethal this, lethal that. Dead is dead by the hands of state sanctioned violence.

It’s not the method, but the system that’s flawed. Would you rather a man come to you, and tell you everything is alright, or would you want the TRUTH – no matter how bitter the taste may seem?

Tools are the only people on the earth who can absolutely count on getting what they deserve …

I’m not foolish enough to be blinded by the method of murdering me when I know it’s the system. 

««« Damn – after writing this article y’all, I got to brush my teeth again, the death penalty left that bitter taste in my mouth again!!! 

Eagle Eye

Prison Corruption 

I been detained by the prison system for 8 years now, and as I sit here in my 5 by 8 cell, I ask myself – What is prison, or what are we?

Are we graduates of a decadent prison system, that’s corrupted and brutalizes, demoralizes, criminalizes ……

That hardens, angers, perverts and also it’s design to do everything possible to do to an inmate.

But, what a prison in the late twentieth and early twentieth – first century is suppose to do is, retrieve, rehabilitate, and then reintroduce an inmate into society? REALLY? Who are we all fooling!!

We are graduates of that system, that system that has made it hard enough to feel to care, to love – and 50 % of inmates turn out to be repeat offenders. It was made that way …

The poet Norman Mailer, said it best. “There is a paradox at the cure of penology and from it deprives the thousand ills and afflictions of the prison system.”

It is not only the worst of the young who are sent to prison, but the best!!

That is the proudest, the bravest, the most daring, the most enterprising and the most undefeated of the poor …

The starts – The “Horror” 

Thoughts of an inmate who observes – how people betray us on the inside???

Eagle Eye

Slave Master

So call me crazy, or have I had an epiphany on the death penalty, and it’s finally time to abolish it forever.

The slave master was allowed to dehumanize us, and to make us less human, less feeling, less caring, less than they were.

It is this dehumanization that breaks down barriers, and you got to remember something whether you agree with my realization on this, or not, we’re all criminally insane.

Now most of us have good control mechanisms, internally and externally – Remove the controls and you have a killer – WHAT!!!

Just think about this, once the barriers have been broken down, once as a race we let killers who lost control of their mechanisms lynch our people without blinking an eye, because of fear saying “I hope it’s not me, or someone I know”.

How long did you think it would take for these same killers to come up with a racist penal system – to kill a black man for stealing a purse, or looking at a white woman …

So as a society when you become less caring, less feeling, and allow the modern day slave master (the legal system) to dehumanize us, to make us less human!!! What’s going to happen???

You have to be an animal to legally kill another human being – I still can vision the pain, and suffering our ancestors went thru with the sound of that whip – sswisssssshhh …

Before the skin of humanity

In closing – This nation as a whole is finally realizing that the death penalty is more than just an 8^th Amendment Constitution violation but goes deeper than we know, so WAKE UP PLEASE …

Eagle Eye

Can’t Stop Now

It’s a struggle everyday maintaining our composure and staying focused on what’s truly important. I’m really grateful for all the brothers on Life Row, who have helped me over the years, in so many areas…

Project Hope – is the greatest thing that happened to me, because without them and both of my law teachers, being patient with me in learning all I can, to help myself, help my lawyers overturn this death sentence …

Knowing the things I know now, if I would have known 8 years ago – LORD knows. So I’m done with the past, and working on my future, to better myself as a person and father for my son, who’s counting on me to overcome this setback. So, I trust my Lord and Savior, with the FAITH thru his grace and mercy he continues to show us all. So I can’t, and will not stop now.

No matter how tough it might get or frustrating things may seem, you’ve got to hold on to what’s important to you, in order to maintain focus and that’s your motivation …

“Can’t Stop Now” 

Eagle Eye

Tha Judicial System to Modern Day Slavery

Tha judicial System is a form of modern day slavery designed to continue to enslave a population …

Eagle Eye

Being Honest To Thy Self

Is it a dream, or please God, remove and awake me from this nightmare …

As I travel through this maze, and picture this, not knowing what lies ahead, but at tha ages of 9 years old, I witness my mom being killed, then my great grandmother pass away, followed by 2 more aunts and grandmother. Has I continue to travel through this maze, facing and overcoming these obstacles we all face in life, and every day in these streets …

Throughout my childhood, and adult hood I honestly thought I will, or wouldn’t never be able to pull myself together after losing my mom, then escaping death twice, and been shot as I turn and run tha streets day n, day out, I now sit on life row, visualising my future.

30 years old now, I have grown up over these last 8 years, ant mature so much, to put things in perspective now.

Sometimes, God puts us in awkward places to get our attention before we fall a victim tour own circumstances, we struggle with every day in life.

Focusing on coming home, and being tha best father I can be to my son, giving God all tha praise, and enjoying life to tha fullest.

Enclosing, done with tha old life, preparing and building on my new one, but when God do reopen those doors again, tha biggest key of them all, is maintaining focus because we may weep at night, but joy comes in tha morning …

With this new year on its way, I ask that ya’ll continue to lift all of my brothers up in pray, and continue to be a blessing to others …

Be Honest To Thy Self

Eagle Eye